Ahead of finding out if his successes of 2013 are enough to see him crowned BBC SPOTY, the double world champ looks to his next goal – conquering 26.2 miles

The man in charge of ticketing for London 2012 today revealed that there are still some athletics tickets left for next year’s Olympic Games, and will be available to purchase in the second round sales.

Earlier this week millions of people who applied for tickets for the London 2012 Games found out whether or not they had been successful, with organisers meeting their deadline of debiting accounts by midnight on Tuesday.

But with there being 20 million applications for the 6.6 million tickets available to the public via a controversial ballot, many people have missed out all together, and even most of those who did gain tickets only got a small percentage of those they applied for. Some sessions were over-subscribed manyfold with the evening of athletics on August 5 – which includes the men’s 100m final – receiving one million applications for just 20,000 seats.

Although accounts have already been debited, the successful applicants will have to wait until June 10 to find out exactly which tickets they have secured. A second stage of the ticketing process will open later this month, whereby people have the opportunity to purchase any left over tickets. Non-successful applications from the first stage will be given priority.

But there was a small ray of hope for athletics fans today as Chris Townsend, London 2012 director responsible for ticketing, told The Telegraph today in a web chat that there are still some athletics tickets left. He also said that there’s a small chance that some people could still find their accounts debited up until June 10, should the payments of successful applicants bounce.

“The tickets to be made available in the second round sales will be tickets remaining from the ballot stage,” he said. “There will be tickets available for some athletics sessions after the ballot process.

“Most payments from successful applicants have been taken,” he added. “There is still a slight chance that you may receive tickets from a re-allocation from cards that could not be processed by June 10

“The second round sales process will start later this month and we will notify all non-successful applicants in advance of the sale by email or letter,” he said, adding that he was confident the London 2012 ticketing system will be able to withstand the anticipated rush for tickets when the second round sales process opens.

Townsend went on to explain that separate random ballots were run for each price point. “For example, for the 100m final, five separate ballots were run, one for each price point,” he said.

If there are still certain OG Athletics event tickets available why has a trawl of the unsuccessful applicants not been made to see if any of them nearly fit with any of the bids that were completely unsuccessful, in order to offer any differently priced/dated tickets to the unsuccessful applicants directly first. Will any priority be given to people who applied and got nothing at all versus others who got tickets for different sessions in tranche 1 ? The number of tickets available on the second issue should be restricted to a max of 2 per applicant to help ensure that true athletics supporters get a fairer shot. It would also have been helpful if the original process had been articulated with more clarity i.e. if the info on the 2012 Ticket website about transfer of tickets to others, had not contracdicted what Seb Coe said on BBC TV shortly after the bids closed.

Coe et al have totally failed to deliver. Wasn't London 2012 supposed to be a once in a generation event to inspire our youth to rise from their comfy chairs and leave the games console behind ? I feel this is a massive wasted opportunity. On a personal note, I was aggrieved there were no child concessions on ticket prices for the main athletics sessions. As two of my children are involved in Athletics, I applied for £5000 worth of tickets but got none. How do I explain that to my kids ? Indeed, my eldest child ranks in the top 10 for their age group-some inspiration watching it on the telly will be ! Also if there were only 20,000 tickets for sale to see the Men's 100m Final, where are the other 60,000 tickets going ?

You are amazing lucky to be able apply for £5000 worth of tickets, my sporty children will be just as
disappointed as yours, and we could only afford one chance at 3 tickets.Be thankful that with £5000 you will be able to compensate in a way we can't.

Given that there were only 8.8 million ticket and something like 35 million possible purchasers (removing old and very young) the chances of geetting any ticket was pretty small. The organisers did not price the tickets as high as they could have which at least gave everybody some chance, albeit small, of getting a ticket to the big events. I've got 4 tickets for beach volleyball and 2 for boxing (thats the only way to get to the £266 I've been debited). I'm disappointed but realistic – what did we really think was going to happen?

I have emailed the Culture Secretary – Jeremy Hunt. I asked why fat cats can go online now and buy whatever corporate package they want? His response was that cheaper tickets were available because these business packages were covering their costs? Since when though was the Olympics about making money?!! ALL the tickets should have been affordable and available!!!! This is beyond sickening. I have followed the Olympics since 1984 and attended other Games and venues throughout the world. It is wrong that not only do I live near London but that I cannot see a single thing within the Olympic Park. There is no "legacy" in any of this. And the thought of Clapham-ite thirty-somethings being given tickets for nothing via the office is beyond wrong.

I coach youngsters at athletics and they & my own children are very sad at not getting tickets for this great event. Who has? I can live with not being picked out that's the luck of the draw off course. But what impression does it make when you hear that one gentlemen has applied for approx 30k of tickets and got 10k. It must be likely some of this events must be on the same day – where's these tickets going? Also on the BBC news web site today tickets are being set aside for youngsters GREAT. But again it states that they must sign up for a course with Sportivate. What about those already in sport?
Kev – Bexley AC